Crimping-machine for boots and shoes



(No Model.) 2Sheets-Sheet1'.

J. A. & A. G. AMBLER. Crimping Machine for Boots and Shoes. No. 234,163. Patented Nov. 9,1880.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

J. A. & A. O. AMBLER. Crimping Machine for Boots and Shoes.

No. 234,163. Patented Nov. 9,1880.

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N. PEIERS. PHDTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. 0 C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES A. AMBLER AND ABTEMAS G. AMBLER, OF NATIOK, MASSACHUSETTS.

CRlMPlNG-MACHINE FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 234,163, dated November 9, 1880.

Application filed July 22, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, JAMES A. AMBLER and ART-EMAS O. AMBLER, of N atick, county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Machines for Crimping Boots and Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanism for crimping boots and shoes, and has for its object the production of a rapidly-operatingmachine for such purpose, it containing several forms connected with a rotating drum and cooperating with a circular series of jaws. In this apparatus the forms are shown as adapted to be supplied with heated air, or it may be steam or other heating medium, in order to assist and facilitate the crimping action and hasten drying the boot fronts or vamps held thereon. Provision is also herein made for heating the jaws, if it should be desired to do so.

Our invention consists, essentially, in the combination, with crimping-jaws, of a series of heated forms connected with a suitable rotating drum.

Our invention also consists in the combination, with a drum, of a series of boot-forms extended therefrom and made to co-operate with a circular series of forms. and with means to force hot air into the machine to heat the leather being crimped.

Figure 1 represents, in side elevation and partial section, a boot-crimping machine embodying our invention 5 Fig. 2, a detail partial side elevation of the drum carrying the forms, they being detached from the machine; Fig. 3, a partial vertical section, looking at the machine from the left of Fig. 1; Figs. 4, 5, and 6, details showing a modification illustrating our plan of applying heat to the jaws; Fig. 7, an inner-side view of one of the rubbing devices for removing the wrinkles from the instep part of the boot front or vamp and for drawing the loose leather back to the corner of the form.

This machine is composed, chiefly, of two cylinders, a a, supported upon proper legs b I). These cylinders are hollow and containone or both of them, as may be desired-coils of pipe 0 c, to receive steam from any suitable source or steam-generator outside of the machine. Upon the outside or periphery of these cylinders a a are standards 61 61, having placed at their inner faces the jaws or plates 6 e, that act upon the leather carried between them by the forms f. These jaws will preferably be made of metal plates supported between their inner sides and the standards d d upon sheets of india-rubber r, or upon suitable metal or india-rubbersprings. These jaws, by means of the screws 2and nuts 3, may be so adjusted that their inner faces, in their natural positions, will rest more or less close to the formsf in theirline of movement. Theupper ends of the opposite standards, at d, are connected together by suitable bolts 9 and nuts 4. These pairs of jaws and standards are less in number than the forms f, as represented at the left of Fig. 1, in order to leave sufficient space between some of the pairs of standards to readily apply to the forms the leather to be crimped, to enable the same to be acted upon by the hand-rubbers h, preferably loosely pivoted or hung at one end or corner upon one pair of the standards, there being two handrubbers, one for each side of the piece of leather partially crimped and then held upon the form.

The shaft 6 is supposed to be driven slowly, and will preferably be operated intermittingly by a suitable clutch or ratchet under the control of a treadle, each movement of the shaft being sufficient to carry a form from one pair of jaws into position between another pair of jaws immediately in advance of it. This shaft '5 has its hearing in the outer plate, 5, of the cylinder at, and the inner plate, 6, of the cylinder a, has fixed upon it the hollow drumjor disk, about the periphery of which are placed the series of hollow metal forms f, suitable channels or ways 7 leading from the interior of the said drum j into each of the forms. The shaftiis made to rotate the drum and forms. The end of the shaft z is extended within the cylinder at.

The steam-coil 0 may be made to heat air contained in or passing through the said cylinder. Air may be supplied to or introduced into the said cylinder by means of the blower is through a suitable pipe, I, where it will become heated, and the air so heated may, by the said blower, be forced into the hollow shaft 1' and be distributed therefrom through by conduction; but such plan is not so well as suitable outlets 8 into the drum j, and thence into the forms f.

If only the forms are to be heated, the plug or valve 10 will be moved forward from its position shown in Fig. 3 to a position at the rear of the openings 12, to thus enable the heated air to enter the cylinder (1.

When it is desired to heat the jaws we make them as hollow metal boxes a, (see Figs. 4 and 5,) and supportthe said boxes at their rear sides upon suitable springso, to permit the said jaws to yield in the usual way. In the rear plates, a", of each of these hollow jaws we. support a spherical bearing, a, which receives the end of a pipe. p, (see Fig. 5,) which leads the heated air from the cylinders into the jaws. One or more of these pairs of jaws may be made in this way, and, if desired, wemay heat, with heated airorotherwise, both thejaws and the forms, or either of them.

We have thus tardescribed thestandards of the jaws and the cylinder (1 a as stationary and the drum) and forms f as movable: but it is obvious that we may equally well make the drum and forms stationary and rotate the cylinders and jaws. In case it should be desired to use heated air only in the jaws, then the drum j might be made as a disk. The shape of the metal t'ormsf may be varied more or less, according, to the work to be done, and the uppers to be crimped or treated thereon may be confined upon the forms in any usual way. One of the forms, at the left of Fig. 1, is shown ill section to clearly illustrate the hollow space within it, and the heated air forced into it may be discharged at 13, or at any other desired place on the wall of the form.

We do not desire to limit our invention to the exactconstructionor devices herein shown, as it may be variously modified in shape witlr out departing from our invention. The inner face of the rubbing devices h will preferably be corrugated, as shown in Fig. 7.

By this mechanism we crimp boots by an entirely new method-viz., we stretch the boot fronts or vamps, which are always moistened or wet, upon and around heated forms, which assist in drying and setting them in shape, the heat tending to preserve the shape imparted to the boot fronts or vamps between theforms andjaws. It is obvious, were the drum heated and the forms solid, thelatter would be heated to admit hot air into the form.

We claim- 1. Ina crimping-machine, the rotating drum, combined with a connected series of metal forms adapted to be heated substantially as described.

2. In a crimping-machine, an annular series of hollow metal forms connected with a drum and adapted to be heated by hot air or steam, combined with a circular series of jaws, such as described, and standards to support them in a yielding manner, as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a crimping-machine, the combination, with the standards orjaw-supports, of hollow jaws and means to beat them by the introduction of heated air or steam, as and for the purposes described.

4. The combinatiomin acrimping-machine, of the following instrumentalities, viz: the independently-movable rubbing devices h, a rotary series of hollow metal forms, and a circular series of jaws to co-operate therewith, and arranged or spaced, as shown and de scribed, to leave an open space between two pairs ot'jaws, e e, whereby a form with an upper upon it may be stopped between adjacent pairs ofjaws with the boot front or vamp upon it, and may be rubbed by the rubbing devices to rub out wrinkles and fit the boot front or vamp to the form, while the other forms with boot fronts or vamps upon them rest or pass between jaws, substantially as described.

5. In a boot-front-crimping machine, a series of hollow forms adapted to be heated substantially as am] for the purpose described.

6. That improvement in the art or method of crimping boot-fronts which consists in holding the front in place upon a heated form and subjecting it to the action of yielding jaws, which operate upon the front at each side of the form to stretch and fit it to the form, as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES A. AMBLER. ARTEMAS (J. AMBLER.

\Vitnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, ARTHUR REYNOLDS. 

